this will be at the beginning of every chapter -
2004 (before tlt)- the gods
2008 (during botl)- the biggest group
2010 (during hoh)- the seven (underlined)
There's a heavy moment of silence before an intimidating blonde steps forward and kneels. The rest of the children follow suit, some more reluctantly than others, Zeus notices with indignancy before she stands again.
"Lord Zeus. Mother," She says nodding at Athena, who frowns in confusion, "I'm not sure why we're here. I thought you brought us here,"
"What are you talking about, child? Of course, we didn't bring you here." Athena baffles, "And what do you mean mother ? You are no daughter of mine."
The girl stumbles back in surprise as some of the people on the floor speak out in outrage. Athena's eyebrows knit together and she holds up a hand.
After a reluctant silence has passed over them, she begins speaking again, "I do not understand what has you all so upset, nor do I particularly care at the moment, but I suppose I should make one thing clear - I do not know who you are." She says, directing her gaze back to the blonde.
She blinks for a few seconds before biting her lip, "I - what do you mean you don't know me ?"
"I'm afraid I've never seen you in my life."
The children go silent and seem to ponder this before a young woman with a dark braid straight down her back steps forward, "So. . . have any of you seen any of us before?"
The Gods take another good look at the group in front of them before exchanging glances and shaking their heads. They stare at them in disbelief before the blonde grabs the other girl's wrist and pulls her back to the group. They talk among themselves for a moment before turning back to the Gods.
"The only reasonable explanation I can think of is. . ." The blonde trails off, uncertainty, before looking up at them, "What year is it?"
"Er - 2005."
"What?" asks a girl with curly hair pulled into a bandana over the other chatter of disbelief.
"What is the problem?" demands Athena.
"Well. . .we're from 2009." Says the blonde
" What ?" asks the girl with curly hair, again.
"What do you mean what ?" Athena snaps
" We're from 2008."
The Gods braced themselves for another what , but when nothing else came, they exchanged glances again. Zeus sighed after a moment, dropping his head into his hands.
"Well, get on with it. Why are we here?" He asks.
"We already told you, we don't -"
"I wasn't talking to you!"
There's a moment of silence before another flash of yellow appears in the middle of the room to reveal the three fates themselves.
"There isn't an easy answer to your question -"
"There never is." mutters a raven-haired boy.
"- But we can assure you there's a reason." A wave of Clotho's hand a stack of books appears at her feet, "Read these. They will answer everything."
Just as Zeus was going to ask Why they disappeared. The children on the floor groaned before sighing, resigned.
"I guess we should. . . introduce ourselves?" The blonde asks. When the others murmur their agreement, she steps forward, again, "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."
She steps back, and a boy with blonde, curly hair and freckles takes her place, "Will Solace, son of Apollo."
One by one, the kids step forward and introduce themselves, bowing as they did, "Grover Underwood, satyr and child of Pan."
"Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter." Says a dark-skinned girl with green eyes.
"Travis and -"
"Connor Stoll-"
"Sons of Hermes."
"Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes."
"Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite." Some of the older demigods flinch at the name but don't say anything.
"Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus."
The curly-haired girl with the "Clarisse la Rue, daughter of Ares."
A black-haired girl stepped up next, seemingly bracing herself, "Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus."
There's a shocking moment of silence from the Gods before Zeus speaks up, "T - Thalia ?! I thought - but, what about -"
She smiles thinly before slinging an arm around the raven-haired boy and Annabeth, "It's a long story. I'm sure we'll get to it."
After another moment, a redhead walks forward " Rachel Elizabeth Dar e, mortal."
Zeus opens his mouth to say something outrageous but Hestia interrupts him, "How about we wait until we're done. At least."
The introductions continue.
" Piper McClean , daughter of Aphrodite."
Next, a short boy with curly hair to his shoulders stepped up, " Leo Valdez , son of Hephaestus."
" Frank Zhang , son of Mars." The Gods don't bother asking why there's a Roman amongst the Greeks, too caught up in everything that's happening, and, considering they don't flicker between forms, they figure it's got to do with the fates. Just like everything else.
"Reyna Avila RamÃrez-Arellano, daughter of Bellona."
"Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto." Zeus makes a low noise in his throat, but before he can yell at Hades, he interrupts him.
"Honestly, brother, save it, as if you didn't do the same thing. And, besides," Hades narrows his eyes, before thinking better of it, "Nevermind,"
Zeus turns to him, opening his mouth to ask what he was going to say, but is interrupted by a boy with shocking blue eyes.
" Jason Grace , son of Jupiter."
"Twice, it seems," Hades says, unamused, as Poseidon sniggers.
"As if he has any room to be laughing." Percy coughs under his breath to Thaliawho stifles her laughter.
"Nico di Angelo, son of Hades."
"This is getting fairly annoying," Persephone says drily.
Demeter nods vigorously, "I told you -"
"Mother, don't even."
Hades doesn't take mind to the conversation, too busy wondering how, not one, but two of his children are here when none of them should be.
Finally, the last person stands up, a young man with dark skin and curly raven hair, and introduces himself, " Perseus Jackson , son of Poseidon."
Both Hades and Zeus turn to Poseidon, who rolls his eyes at Zeus' angry expression, before Hades just sighs, resigned to the fact that he was the only one of his brothers who didn't break the damn oath.
After a minute, Annabeth walks over the pile of books and picks them up. She stares at the titles for a minute before laughing and looking at Percy.
"What?" He asks, warily.
"I think, based on the titles, anyway, they're about our quests." She gestures to her younger self, Percy, and Grover.
"Wait, really?"
"Yup. We've got Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Bolt, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian ." She frowns, before reading off the rest of them, "And then there's The Heroes of Olympus: Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades, and The Blood of Olympus ."
There's a tense silence at some of the book titles - they don't sound good - before Aphrodite breaks it with her too-loud cheeriness, "Well! It seems we'll be here a while, so," She waves her hand and a bunch of couches and snacks appear in front of them, "Get comfy, and we'll start reading! Who wants to go first?"
Katie raises a somewhat tentative hand, "I guess I will,"
"Great!"